Girls' Football in Brighton & Hove

The Goldstone Primary Year 5/6 Girls team 

Huge congratulations to the Goldstone Primary Year 5/6 Girls who have become the Premier League Stars National Football Champions at the finals at Elland Road, Leeds.  The under 11's girls team faced up to some of the best teams in England but finished top of their group. On reaching the semi-final, the team played a very skilled Wigan Athletic, but some superb marking and two beautiful strikes saw them marching to the final via a 2 - 0 win. The final took place against the Manchester United team which included the competition’s top goal scorer so far. However, a 1-0 win by the Goldstone team means they are now the Under 11 national champions!

Opening of Woodingdean’s School Mural

Mayor of Brighton & Hove, Jackie O’Quinn and Woodingdean pupils

The new school mural

The Mayor of Brighton & Hove, Jackie O’Quinn, joined the school council at Woodingdean Primary School to cut the ribbon at the official opening of their new mural.  The project has involved children from reception through to Year 6 creating the 14 endangered animals which represent each class at the school from recycled, unwanted, donated and broken materials which would otherwise have been headed for landfill.  They now take pride of place just inside the main school door where they can be appreciated by pupils, staff and visitors.  Members of the school council were brimming with enthusiasm and pride for the art work and pupils were keen to talk about their favourites and identifying the different objects that are the components of these stunning pictures.

Queen’s Park Primary School’s Performance of Emil and the Detectives

The Queen's Park Year 5 pupils perform 

In June, a member of the education and skills team attended the fantastic performance of 'Emil and the Detectives’ by Year 5 pupils from Queen’s Park Primary School at the Theatre Royal in Brighton.  Not only were the pupils responsible for acting and singing, they also worked alongside the theatre’s lighting and sound technicians to help produce this wonderful show, based on the book by Erich Kastner adapted by Carl Miller.  The props used were based on the children’s drawings, inspired by the artists of the Weimar Republic.  Several of the key roles were shared by different classmates which enabled more pupils to take on the responsibility of a lead character.  The show included several songs which the ensemble sang clearly and loudly accompanied by actions. Altogether a wonderful performance!

Youth Employment Hub’s Second Anniversary 

                                              The Youth Employment Hub team 

The Youth Employment Hub recently celebrated their second anniversary and Deb Austin joined young people, staff and stakeholders to reflect upon and celebrate the achievements of young people aged 16-25, which include qualifications, new jobs, apprenticeships, traineeships, and further education.  Over 1000 young people have registered with The Youth Employment Hub in Kemptown. Staff listen to young people and offer a safe space, with triaged support so the young person doesn’t have to tell their story numerous times and the centre offers everything from learning to cook with Fareshare, yoga, careers advice, interview clothes and job fairs. Food was provided by Team Domenica who offer Supported Internships across the city.  Find out more about the Youth Employment Hub here or keep up to date with events here.

Anti-Racist Education Conference

Speakers at the conference

Brighton and Hove’s inaugural anti-racist education conference took place in June and was a great success, with over one hundred delegates from schools in the city attending. Through hearing directly from young people, through to a variety of workshops, delegates learnt about the work happening in our schools to tackle racism and also reflect on their own role in supporting all children and young people through anti-racist practice. We also heard from Professor Jason Arday, Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Cambridge. He explained his journey through the education system and highlighted the people and approaches that helped him to succeed. Thank you to Camille Kumar, Education Adviser - Anti-Racism (Early Years Schools and Colleges), and her team for their excellent work in preparing for and organising the conference for us all. 

Changing Chalk – Brighton & Hove City Council Farm School Project 

Pupils take part in activities

The Changing Chalk Farm School Project got off to a flying start with five of our city’s primary schools visiting different farms on the South Downs. Farm School is part of Changing Chalk, a project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and People’s Postcode Lottery, engaging children living within the city with the farming community on their doorstep. The children have explored themes such as protecting the chalk grassland and increasing understanding around local food and farming through a number of activities including feeding lambs, investigating the life cycle of wheat and even having a ‘Bake Off’ harvest wheatsheaf competition.  Thank you to all the farmers who generously gave their time to give the children involved such a wonderful hands-on experience of farming practices on the South Downs. If you would like to learn more, please contact Hannah Tedman, Farm School Coordinator, at Hannah.Tedman@brighton-hove.gov.uk.

Virtual School Conference

Attendees at the conference

The annual Virtual School Conference took place on 20 June at Sussex University and was an outstanding success with a number of enlightening and informative presentations from our guest speakers, including a presentation from one of our own care leavers.  The resounding message throughout the day was that high aspirations and educational opportunities are key to supporting our children and young people to thrive, rather than just survive.  Thank you to everyone involved in creating such a thought provoking and interesting conference. 

Racial Literacy Training with Headteachers

On 14 June, at our half termly primary headteachers’ meeting, John Lynch and Beth Thomas-Hancock led a training session for headteachers and members of the education team looking at unconscious bias and the lived experiences of racism that still exists in society and education. With a focus on understanding why it is important for school leaders to highlight this issue, to have a clear strategy and to take an anti-racist stance, John shared a wide range of examples drawing on his experiences as a school leader. He shared what young people currently at school are saying about their experiences and what the consequences of not doing anything about this will be for their lives. Beth followed on by exploring the concept of unconscious bias in more depth. We learnt how to identify our own biases, and how by developing more awareness we can adopt practices and approaches that are fairer and more equitable. 

Eat Your Veg at Rudyard Kipling Primary School

Pupils plant their seeds

We all know that getting children to eat their vegetables can be a hard task but it’s great to see Rudyard Kipling working hard on creative ways to get their pupils more interested in eating their veggies. After taking part in the 2023 Eat Them to Defeat Them campaign, Rudyard Kipling Primary School were lucky enough to secure funding from the local authority to receive a whole class tomato growing kit from Veg Power. The Year 6 children enjoyed planting the seeds as part of their WWII topic and were filmed by the Veg Power team. Veg Power’s mission is to get more children eating more vegetables. Using play and creativity, they inspire and empower children to make positive food choices.  If you’re interested in taking part in this programme visit their website, Veg Power, for more information or email Stephanie Douglas at stephanie.douglas@vegpower.org.uk 

Putting the Wheels in Motion

Attendees on the course

With a sharp focus on the road ahead and encouraging children into a healthy and active lifestyle, ten teachers from Brighton & Hove schools attended the city’s first cycle leader course, delivered by British Cycling in mid May. Completion of the course resulted in a British Cycling Ride Leadership (Level 1) Award - the minimum requirement for taking out pupils onto the city’s roads, which allows teachers to take out ten riders (KS2 upwards) with another adult. Kelly Mitchell, Central Hub, commented: “Perfectly pitched, challenging, informative and it has armed our provision with fantastic skills to improve our PE offer and, in turn, improve the mental health and well-being of our students.” Another course is planned for the Autumn term. If you’d like to be included, or know someone who is interested, please contact: paula.greening@brighton-hove.gov.uk.

Ethnic Minority Achievement Service Art Celebration

Some examples of the artwork created

EMAS (Brighton & Hove Ethnic Minority Achievement Service) has created a celebrational display of artwork by primary aged refugee children in Brighton & Hove schools. The children are all newly arrived refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine and have varying prior school experience and levels of English acquisition. They have produced a variety of artwork based around themselves, their families and their countries and culture which gives them a chance to talk and share experiences in a safe space and feel proud of what they contribute to the wider school community. EMAS has been working in schools using the principles of the IRCs (International Rescue Committee) healing classroom interventions which are: sense of self-worth; sense of belonging; sense of control; positive relationships and intellectual stimulation.  EMAS specialist teacher Suzanne Fisher has led on this work and is speaking about the impact of the healing classroom approach in this video. Healing classrooms training is free.  For more information please see this link.

Check out Brighton & Hove's Holiday Activities and Food video!

On Monday 12 June bookings for Summer HAF 2023 went live on our new central booking system here. To help us launch our biggest offer yet, the fantastic Brighton Table Tennis Club have helped us to produce this fantastic video that helps epitomise what HAF is all about. Please look out for social posts coming out from Brighton & Hove City Council from Monday and help show our film some love!

Inspection reports have been published for Cardinal Newman Catholic High School, Patcham High School and St Paul’s CE Primary School. Congratulations to Cardinal Newman Catholic School which continues to be a good school. There is enough evidence of improved performance to suggest that the school could be judged outstanding if we were to carry out a graded (section 5) inspection now.

 

Cardinal Newman's report also said: “Leadership across the school is purposeful and effective. Leaders work untiringly to provide a high-quality education which fully embraces the Catholic ethos” and “teachers are experts in their subjects and ensure that pupils master content and develop their thinking skills”. 

 

Congratulations also to Patcham High School who continue to be Good.  The inspection report at Patcham High said “Patcham High School actively encourages all pupils to experience and value each other’s differences, cultures, backgrounds and abilities. It provides a wide range of opportunities through an ambitious academic curriculum that is supported by careers, enrichment and personal development”. 

 

St Paul's CE Primary School also received their inspection report and received a grading of Requires Improvement. There were many positive aspects to the report that highlighted the good practice across the school including “pupils benefit from a supportive and nurturing environment”, “leaders ensure that children have a strong start in school. The children in the early years benefit from a well-planned curriculum”, “pupils learn in a calm and purposeful environment” and “leaders know exactly what work still needs to be done to strengthen the quality of education”. We are looking forward to continuing to work in close partnership with the school on their improvement journey.

Welcomes

Dermot Farrell

I would like to welcome Dermot Farrell who has recently joined Brighton & Hove City Council as Multiply Adult Numeracy Programme Manager.  Dermot previously worked within the educational environment supporting students, staff and members of the public and recently at a large Further Education college managing adult education courses on the set-up of new opportunities such as programmes for the unemployed. Dermot is based at the Adult Education Hub and we all look forward to working with him over the coming months.

 

Best wishes,

Jo

Keep in touch and follow me on Twitter @JoMLyons

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